1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding mechanism for an optical compact disk drive. More particularly, the present invention relates to a sliding mechanism that includes a pair of slide tracks respectively mounted at opposite sides of a tray of an optical compact disk drive. A plurality of bulbous contacts are respectively formed on the right and left slide tracks to fit retaining portions of a lower cover of the optical compact disk drive. By respectively having the bulbous contacts in point-to-point contact with the corresponding retaining portions, the tray moves forth and back with reduced frictions. A slide body is provided with a hook, a protection piece, and a fastening piece. The hook and fastening piece have an inclined angle inclined inwardly toward the shaft motor for firmly clamping the tray's outermost and innermost portions respectively. The stability of the optical compact disk drive assembled with the sliding mechanism of the invention is increased. Furthermore, the amount of slide tracks is reduced and the production cost and assembly cost are therefore reduced.
2. Description of Related Art
When the tray of an optical compact disk drive is pulled out to an outmost position away from the optical compact disk drive, a compact disk is placed on the tray that, then, is pushed back along the same path. The data of the compact disk then is read by a read/write head 4 of the optical compact disk drive.
Referring to FIG. 1, a pair of punched metal slide tracks 7 are respectively formed between the tray 5 and a pair of injection-molded plastic tracks 6 inside a conventional optical compact disk drive. When the tray 5 is pulled out, it moves along the punched metal slide tracks 7 and the injection-formed plastic tracks 6 (i.e. dual-track sliding mechanism). However, the tray holder of the above optical compact disk drive practically has the following disadvantages.
When the tray 5 is pulled to an outmost position away from the optical compact disk drive, the configuration of the dual-track sliding mechanism causes slight loosening during operation. The dual-track sliding mechanism needs at least four tracks, which increases the production cost. The punched tracks 7 are not able to provide a firm holding. Therefore, the tray 5 may experience slight loosing during operation, which impacts the quality of the product.
When the tray 5 is pushed to an innermost position in the optical compact disk drive, the total gap between the tracks makes the tray 5 vibrate and generates noise when a shaft motor 3 of the optical compact disk drive rotates at high-speed.